The
Big & Rich camp decreed that 2009 was the year of solo projects, with
John Rich taking the spring for
Son of a Preacher Man and
Big Kenny getting the fall for
The Quiet Times of a Rock and Roll Farmboy, his first album since
Live a Little. If that record -- recorded in 1999 but not released until 2005, after
Big & Rich turned into stars -- veered toward big-budget studio rock,
The Quiet Times does have a stronger country bent, containing lots of fiddles and guitars, even odes to being back down home. Despite all of this,
The Quiet Times doesn't feel particularly country: like
Live a Little, it exists in a curious netherworld between genres, willfully eclectic without a unifying vision and lacking a focus given by hooks. That messiness could also be a reflection of how the album was cut at
Big Kenny's home studio and released on his own label: it's a pet project that contains no doorway into his world, and unless you're on his wavelength -- and can stomach his exaggerated crooning -- it's a pretty alienating ride.